Trains and Toads
by Serpent In Red
Summary: Perhaps they could become friends.


**Warning/s:** AU, Tom attends Hogwarts with Harry and co.  
**Summary:** Perhaps they could become friends.  
**Disclaimer: **Everything you recognize is owned by J.K. Rowling. Not me.  
**A/N: **Inspired by two fics written by Nerys and me ("The Position", which could be found on AO3, and the fic we're writing for the weather challenge).  
**Prompt:** 028\. Children  
**Word Count:** 1,221

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**Trains and Toads**

A gentle knock was heard on the door, despite the loud sounds of wheels rolling against the steel tracks. Why wizards and witches traveled by train was a mystery to Hermione Granger; she had thought there would had been a more glorious display of magic, some sort of magical cyclone that would whisk them off to Hogwarts or perhaps an elderly witch would tap her wand on their heads and they would arrive at the school. Not that she wasn't happy about magic—she'd seen so many things that fascinated her at Diagon Alley—but _**trains**_ as a form of transport …

She was snapped out of her reveries when a sad, round-faced boy cracked open the door.

"Have—have you seen a toad?"

Hermione blinked but shook her head nonetheless. "I haven't seen it. Have you lost it? Is it your pet?"

The round-faced boy nodded. "It keeps getting away from me! I've asked around, and nobody's seen him."

With that said, he entered the compartment and sat opposite of Hermione, tearing up.

"Well then, we'll just have to find it," Hermione said bossily, taking charge and standing up from her seat. "What's your name?"

"My name's Neville," he sniffled as she carefully placed a bookmark to mark her page before closing the book she had been reading with a snap.

Putting the book on the seat where she had been sitting in, she grabbed him by the arm and led him out the door.

"I've—I've asked—" he started when she placed her hand on the first compartment they arrived at.

"Let's start here," Hermione said, not really listening.

Inside the compartment were two young boys. One had bright red hair and a smudge of dirt on his nose, and the other one had jet-black hair. Apparently, they—she later learned, in between her "self-introduction", that their names were Ron Weasley and Harry Potter—hadn't seen the toad.

Sighing to herself, she dragged Neville along and went on to the next compartment.

The young boy inside was reading, it seemed, and his eyes were moving across the pages quickly and hungrily. For a moment, Hermione marvelled at the fact that there was actually someone like her who liked to read going to Hogwarts.

Pushing open the door, she asked, "Have you seen a toad? Neville's lost one."

As if in slow motion and without even moving his head, the boy's eyes flickered away from the sentence he had been reading and met with Hermione's. They had to be the darkest eyes Hermione had ever seen. Those dark, nearly black eyes and jet-black hair in combination with his pale complexion shouldn't have such an impact on someone. The simple fact that he had his gaze on her made it feel as if the compartment had suddenly turned a few degrees colder. This boy … something about him made Hermione swallow hard, despite her previous joy of finding someone who might share a common interest with her.

"No."

Hermione blinked quickly a couple of times. "Pardon?"

She thought she heard a small whimper from Neville, and her suspicions were confirmed when she felt a tug on her sleeve, urging her to go.

The boy's eyes slightly narrowed before he closed them. When he opened then again, the previous suffocating atmosphere suddenly evaporated. A kind smile had appeared on his lips, but his eyes were still fathomless.

"I didn't see Neville's toad," he replied, his voice much warmer than it was moments ago.

It was as if _**that**_ had been an illusion, a figment of her imagination. The contrast was so large that Hermione was rendered speechless for a second.

That was when Hermione realized that he, too, had his Hogwarts robes on and that promptly pushed her strange trepidation towards him to the side.

"So you're ready for school, too, I see," she commented with a nod. "Nice to see that at least some of us have the good sense to get ready before the train arrives. I'm Hermione Granger by the way, and you are?"

The boy stared at her for a few seconds before he answered, "Tom Riddle."

"Pleasure," she replied before she launched into her "self-introduction" again.

Somewhere in the back of her mind, she knew it probably wasn't the best way to make friends, but somehow, she couldn't stop. When she say those words to others, it reassured her that she fitted into Hogwarts, that though she was Muggle-born, she still could and would know more than a pure-blood wizard or witch.

She hardly realized that Riddle hadn't responded all that much, and if she were just a little more perceptive, she might've noticed that small bit of annoyance that flashed across his face.

"Well, I guess we should continue looking for Neville's toad before we reach Hogwarts," she said. "Let us know if you see it."

Her eyes met with Riddle's again, and for a moment, she wondered if that smile on his face was sincere or not. However, she quickly brushed that aside. She was being silly. Not to mention, out of all the carriages, she'd finally found someone who wanted to learn, like her. Perhaps they could even become friends.

"Good-bye," she said as she exited the compartment.

As she was stepping out, the door suddenly slipped from her grip, and she made it out into the corridor a split second before it could slam shut on her hand.

Shocked, she turned around and stared at the compartment door as her heart tattooed against her chest. Her eyes met with Riddle's, and she thought she saw a faint smirk on his face, but the moment she attempted to take a closer look, it was gone. Casually, he pulled over the book he had been reading minutes before and started going through it again.

It was now that she realized he was reading _Hogwarts, A History_, not some _101 Ways to Perform Magic Way Above Your Level_ books. There weren't those kind of books in the first place anyway. She knew—she'd checked the day she'd gone to Diagon Alley.

Could it be? No, it couldn't be. He didn't even have his wand out, and one needed a wand to do magic, right? Or else why would they even need to get a wand in the first place? Why didn't they just teach people wandless magic?

Even if it were the childhood outbursts that Professor McGonagall had described, it only occurred when the child felt endangered. Tom, however, seemed completely calm and composed. Hermione might be bossy, but she hadn't been threatening him back then.

She glanced back at Riddle, and her teeth worried her lower lip, wondering if she should confront him about the almost accident. However, even in her mind, the whole questioning sounded stupid to her.

"_Even though I know that you don't have your wand out, did you just nearly slam the door on my hand?"_

No, that was a conversation that would not go down well. _**And**_ Hermione was anything but stupid. What if they threw her out of Hogwarts for being stupid?

She glanced back at Neville who had finally stopped sniffling and was looking at her questioningly.

Shaking her head, she smiled at him and led him down the corridor towards the prefects' carriage.

It had to have been an accident.

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End file.
